


Flash Fics for New Comics - Captain America #3

by msermesth_on_wednesdays (msermesth)



Series: Flash Fics for New Comics [5]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Flash Fic, M/M, Stony Bingo, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 12:51:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15908622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msermesth/pseuds/msermesth_on_wednesdays
Summary: Tony gets a call he isn't prepared for.





	Flash Fics for New Comics - Captain America #3

**Author's Note:**

> Set during Captain America #3. Fulfills my cap-im bingo square for "everything is just peachy."
> 
> Written fast, ignore the errors.

Tony’s phone, the super special one that’s less of a phone and more of a prototype for the next generation of satellite communications, rings and he accepts the call with a tap of his watch.

“Is this a good time?’ Steve asks and Tony stops mid-step. Of course, he shouldn’t be surprised to hear Steve’s voice, given he’s one of the only people in the world who even knows how to directly reach Tony. Yet, Tony would expect a very dangerous hacker over Steve’s voice at the moment. That isn’t because their friendship is strained--it is and they’re working on it--but that Tony is sure Steve was in the middle of some top-secret mission even he isn’t supposed to know about.

“Now’s great,” Tony responds as casually as he can because he shouldn’t know what Steve’s been working on with T’Challa.

“Good.” Just by the way he says it, Tony knows Steve’s crossing his arms, defensive, like he’d been expecting Tony to blow him off and had already decided to to be angry about it. As if there isn’t something unwritten in the Avengers’ bylaws that one is required to answer a call from Captain America. “I, uh…” he starts but falls silent. Tony represses the desire to pull up Steve’s exact location.

Eventually Tony has to say something, so he asks, “Is everything ok?”

Steve huffs. “Everything is just peachy.”

Tony knows bullshit when he hears it. “Doesn’t sound very peachy.”

“It’s _fine_ ,” Steve retorts. “It’s nothing, I swear. I just got to go do something--” Tony silently nods, “--and I needed an opinion.”

Tony raises an eyebrow and then remembers Steve can’t see it. If he needs technical expertise, he probably should just ask T’Challa, given that he’s right nearby. Not that Tony actually knows that, or anything. “Yeah, shoot. What’re you looking for?”

“You,” Steve says and Tony’s heart skips a beat when he doesn’t follow it up with anything.

Really? Now? _Like this?_

Tony processes the single word and then adds dozens of potential others. All the possibilities lay before him, but none of them make sense. After a few seconds of crisis he realizes he needs to say something.

Deflection is clearly the best option, so he chooses to joke. “Steve, you know, I’m flattered, really, but…”

“Goddammit, Tony,” Steve all but shouts and what was brittle in his voice before now is now shattered. “That wasn’t why I called.”

Tony swallows disappointment he doesn’t deserve. “Why did you call, then?” Calm, cool, professional; just two Avengers talking on the phone.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that have changed, all of those things we lost.” Tony can hear Steve’s internal monologue about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but without all the hope and passion Steve normally injects into those words. “But that’s not you, Tony. You’re not concerned about what was, you build your life on what could be.” Steve takes a deep breath that’s audible through the phone.

This is about the moment Tony would put a hand on his arm, but he can’t, making him extra aware of the way it hangs at his side. He plays with the idea of telling Steve it’s all going to be okay, but even in his head those words are hollow. So, he tells the truth. “I don’t know what sort of future we have in front of us, but I don’t want to live in one Steve Rogers isn’t fighting for.”

He doesn’t want to live in one without Steve, _period_ , but Steve doesn’t want to hear that.

“Okay,” Steve says after a few seconds. Three loud, sharp sounds follow.

“Is someone shooting at you!?” Tony asks, because _what the hell_ and _only Steve_.

“They can wait,” Steve says like this happens every day, and the fact that it actually does still doesn’t alleviate the crushing tension that holds Tony’s chest. “Thanks Tony. You always know what I need to hear.” Someone who is very much _not_ Steve on the other end grunts in pain and Steve doesn’t even sound like he’s exerting himself. “Talk to you soon.”

The phone goes silent and Tony immediately pulls up Steve location in addition to every other piece of intel he needs on Steve’s mission. Just in case and not because it keeps his mind off of the way Steve had made it clear he didn’t feel the same.

**Author's Note:**

> I write less flashier fics as [msermesth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/msermesth/pseuds/msermesth). When I'm not complaining about my life, I say things about comics on [twitter](https://twitter.com/msermesth). You can also read this fic on [tumblr](https://msermesth.tumblr.com/post/177784075309/flash-fics-for-new-comics-95).


End file.
